1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for processing fractionated patterns of serum formed by the electrophoresis.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 shows a basic pattern of concentration distribution on fractionated patterns formed by electrically energizing with an electrophoretic apparatus a carrier made of cellurose acetate film onto which man's serum is applied (a healthy man's serum generally shows this pattern). Such an electrophoretic patterns usually consists of five fractions of A, B, C, D and E including five peaks of a.sub.0, a.sub.1, a.sub.2, a.sub.3 and a.sub.4 corresponding to albumin (A), alpha 1 globulin (B), alpha 2 globulin (C), beta globulin (D), and gamma globulin (E) respectively. Diagnosis or distinguishment between normality and abnormality is done on the basis of an analog diagram and values in percentage of the respective fractions. However, patterns of concentration distribution on fractionated patterns of actual sample may include peaks produced by various causes in addition to those shown in FIG. 1. The pattern illustrated in FIG. 2, for example, include a peak designated as a.sub.5 in addition to the five peaks mentioned above. This peak is produced due to turbidity in serum which allows a substance insensible of electrophoresis to remain at the position of sample application. The electrophoretic pattern shown in FIG. 3 includes an additional peak at the position of a.sub.6, whereas the one shown in FIG. 4 includes an additional peak at the position of a.sub.7. These peaks are produced by fractionation of certain components contained in sera depending on their freshness, the additional peak shown in FIG. 3 being produced by beta lipoprotein and that in FIG. 4 being produced by .beta..sub.lc globulin.
When colorimetry is done on a sample which shows peaks in addition to the five basic peaks, inconvenience is caused in automatic processing with a computer of data obtained by colorimetry. FIG. 5 shows an example of configuration of a densitometer and a photometric apparatus which are currently employed. In the block diagram shown in FIG. 5, the light emitted from a light source lamp 3 is passed through a lens 4, a filter 5 and a slit 6, used for irradiating a carrier 1 (described later) and detected with a photo detector element 7. The carrier 1 has fractionated patterns 2, 2', 2", . . . of sera formed thereon as shown in FIG. 6, and is placed between the light source and the detector for photometry of the individual fractionated patterns while scanning in the direction perpendicular to the shifting direction of the carrier. That is to say, the light emitted from the light source lamp and passing through the sample (fractionated pattern of a serum) is received by the photo detector element 7, whose output corresponding to sample concentration is amplified with a preamplifier 8, converted by a logarithmic converter 9 into a logarithmic value and used for preparing an analog densitogram as shown in FIG. 1. Successively, output from the logarithmic converter 9 is inputted into an A/D converter 10 and converted into a digital signal by operating a conversion command signal generator 11 with a photometry command 11a from a computer 12. Value of each fraction is determined on the basis of the digital data obtained at this stage.
For the operations described above, it is sufficient to determine points of local minimum values as boundary points in such a case as shown in FIG. 1. In cases of the electrophoretic densitograms divided into more than five fractions as illustrated in FIG. 2 through FIG. 4, however, it is impossible to determine values of the five fractions. In a case where an electrophoretic densitogram has more than five fractions, it is therefore required for the analyst to check an analog pattern and electrophoretic pattern for recalculation through processing to attribute the additional peaks to any one of the areas corresponding to albumin, alpha 1 globulin, alpha 2 globulin and gamma globulin. In case of abnormal fractions due to disease, they may be reported with no attempt made for data processing.